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The topic pretty much says it all i got a new pair of juvenile oscars they are currently in a 6 foot tank all on their lonesome any recommendations of fish that go well with them? like schooling fish etc

Thanks

Two oscars in a 6' and you're pretty close to maxing it out already.

Oscars need companions that are too fast and too large to get eaten. Since they're only in a 6' tank you need to stick with fast over large. You might get away with giant danios or tiger barbs. Be prepared for them to become lunch though.

Provide plenty of hiding spots and you could get some crayfish for the bottom to clean up what the oscars spit out. Again, be prepared for some of them to not make it.

^_^

I agree with Babel that you are very close to capacity. I would suggest a couple of bottom dwelling catfish, but nothing small. Oscars grow quickly, and even though they are in a quite large tank they will fill the space in a very short time.
Hoplo catfish or syndodontis eupretus catfish are my suggestions, but only a couple.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

ive got a 6x2x2 tank with 2 oscars and some 6" firemouths, providing plenty of hiding spots for the firemouths, but if anything, they bully the oscars a little bit, never any real fighting though.

giant danio's would be your best bet, theyre very quick, grow just big enough to not be swallowed to easily ....

6x2x2 - Firemouth and Oscar Tank
30+ royal pythons.

Back in the game after 4 years out ..

I had a "wake up" moment recently with respect to Oscars. Someone had decided to part with a breeding pair and dropped them off at a local dealer's. Boy, were they huge. I'd say that this pair had been given a decent amount of space to live in before being parted with, because they were bigger than some fish I've seen in the supermarket offered for the dinner table!

Put it this way, the breeding pair I saw a few days ago were easily big enough to need a 150 gallon tank to keep them happy, especially if they were going to be kept with anything else. Those Oscars, a big Synodontis catfish and a gibbiceps plec, would be looking at a 150 gallon as a bare minimum setup, and if you could give them 200 gallons, so much the better.

Oh, and as for big Synodontis, I'd recommend running with something other than Synodontis eupterus as companions for big Cichlids, because a Synodontis eupterus is a beautiful show fish in its own right, that deserves to be kept in a setup where its elegant finnage won't be a target for attack. If you're looking for a Synodontis that will live with big Cichlids, go with Synodontis acanthomias instead, because it's a bruiser of a catfish, one of the out and out predators amongst the Synos, and well able to look after itself in the company of Dempseys, Oscars and even Green Terrors. I'd draw the line at dropping it in with a Black Belt Cichlid, though, but then Black Belts are seriously bad tempered even when they're in a large tank.

As for Caquetaia species, oh boy, you really have to be a serious Cichlid fan to take those on, and the only catfish I'd recommend you pair up with those aquarium terrorists would be a heavily armoured Doradid - ideally the big Megalodoras irwini, because it'll be bigger than the Cichlids when fully grown. But then, if you're planning on Caquetaia species and a Megalodoras, you're already well into 300 gallon territory tank size wise, and to keep those tank busters happy, better still if you can build a 500 gallon or larger in your basement to order, at which point, you're looking at an aquarium that's a civil engineering project.

Getting back to the Oscars ... basically, the amount of meat these Oscars had put on in my local dealer's was a sight to behold ... I really regret not having taken the camera to film these juggernauts, just to show everyone how much body mass these fish can acquire once they start growing seriously. I'd say that I was looking at a pair of 13 inch fish, and they were solid, chunky and muscular with it, nicely rounded and indicative of having led a well fed life up until they were parted with. To house those fish, not only would I need to invest in a seriously huge aquarium, I'd also need to rip up the floorboards and reinforce the floor joists with concrete and brick emplacements in order to make sure the floor could take the weight!


Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

oscars are my favorite fish. they have eatin alot of other fish too hahah. my friends have them to and we keep them with all kinda of other fish maybe were just lucky. i have a smaller tank so i grow my oscars then bring them into my local pet store for credit. for instance right now i have one albino oscar with a yellow lab cichlid peacock cichlid another cichlid of some sort a crawfish two figure 8 puffer fish. a catfish and a coolie loach. i set my tank up to resemble what i thought it would look like in the wild, tons of space for the fish to escape and get away from other fish lots of chill spots. i think my secret is at any given time there is at least 4-6 feeder fish swimming around, and from my experience the fish will always go for the weekest link

Oscars are Very Cool Seems That You Would Indeed need some Fast Schooling Fish not to be Lunch.

Fish are Friends not Food.